South Korea cancels the “Cinderella Law” aimed at gamers, which was in effect for ten years

What is more important – children’s health or the ability of children to make decisions independently? It took the South Korean authorities ten years to recognize the second as more important. The consequence of this was the abolition of the” Cinderella Law”, which seriously restricted the access of minors to video games.

The law was introduced in 2011 and explicitly prohibited persons under the age of 16 from playing video games from midnight until 6 am. According to the plan of its authors, this guaranteed children at least six hours of sleep, a minimum rest, so that they would not become like a fairy-tale Cinderella, who was forced to work for days on end. There is a direct concern for the younger generation, albeit forcibly.

However, now new times have come, when the activity in the online and media sphere has increased significantly. Young Koreans should learn to think critically when processing information, make decisions themselves and protect themselves. In addition, they also have rights, and because of covid, the factor of remote learning has also appeared. So, it’s time to give children more freedom and more responsibility for themselves, the Korean Ministry of Education decided.

The repeal of this law does not mean the disappearance of restrictions. Guardians or parents retain the right to determine for themselves how much time to allow their child to spend playing video games. A similar measure has been introduced since 2019 in China, where minors can play no more than 90 minutes on weekdays and as much as 3 hours on weekends. The Midnight Patrol system created by Tencent monitors the activity in online games and scans the faces of gamers – children and teenagers are not allowed to play them from 22: 00 to 8: 00.